Swedish Meatballs
Swedish Meatballs are always a hit in our house. These are delicate and tender yet springy and substantial. The sauce is not just a sweetened beef gravy, it's a tangy, sweet, and savory cream sauce. Based on Cook's Illustrated recipe appearing in the Jan/Feb 2009 magazine.
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 slices high-quality white bread crust removed and bread torn into 1" pieces
- 1 lb. ground pork
- 1 med onion grated on the large holes of a box grater
- ¼ tsp nutmeg freshly grated
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp packed brown sugar
- 3 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 lb. 85% lean ground beef
- 2½ cups vegetable oil
Sauce
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
- 4½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 3 tbsp packed brown sugar
- 1½ cups heavy cream
- 2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
For the Meatballs
- Whisk eggs and cream together in a medium bowl. Stir in the bread and set aside. Meanwhile, in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat pork, onion, nutmeg, allspice, pepper, brown sugar, salt, and baking powder on high speed until smooth and pale, about 2 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed.
- Using a fork, mash bread mixture until no large dry bread chunks remains; add mixture to the stand mixer bowl and beat on high speed until smooth and homogeneous, about 1 minute, scraping bowl as necessary.
- Add beef and mix on medium-low speed until just incorporated, about 30 seconds, scraping bowl as needed.
- Using moistened hands, form generous tablespoon size meatballs. About 50-60 meatballs.
- Heat oil in a 10" straight sided sauté pan over medium-high heat until the edge of a meatball dipped in oil sizzles (about 350 degrees). Add meatballs in a single layer and fry, flipping once, halfway through cooking until lightly browned and cooked through, 7-10 minutes, adjusting the heat as needed to keep oil sizzling but not smoking. Using a slotted spoon, transfer browned meatballs to a paper towel-lined plate. Repeat until all meatballs are cooked.
For the Sauce
- Pour off and discard oil in pan, leaving any fond (browned meat bits) in the pan. Return the pan to medium-high heat and add butter. When foaming subsides, add flour and cook, whisking constantly, until flour is light brown, about 30 seconds. Slowly whisk in broth, scraping pan bottom to loosen browned bits. Add brown sugar and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium and cook until sauce is reduced to about 3 cups, 5-10 minutes. Stir in cream and return to a simmer. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.
- Add meatballs to sauce (you may only want to add as many as you're serving and keep the extras separate for the freezer), simmer, turning occasionally, until heated through, about 5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, and serve.
Notes
For freezing the extra meatballs and sauce, chill the sauce and meatballs. When the meatballs have cooled, set on a sheet pan and flash freeze until firm or frozen then, combine each dinner sized portion with chilled sauce in a freezer safe container, or vaccuum seal for longer storage. Thaw and reheat in a skillet or in the oven for a quick and easy dinner.